How to speak Russian. Russian course.Lesson 4

How to speak Russian in 30 Lessons. Lesson 5

In this lesson we'll talk about best ways to learn a foreign language and also how to choose presents for your friends, learn a lot of useful vocabulary and practice with Russian pronunciation. In thу Grammar section we'll learn the past tense of Russian verbs. From lessons 1-4 you already know how to say which country you come from, which language you speak and what nationality you are. Готовы? Вперёд!

Russian Lesson 5.

Giving presents to friends - Дарим подарки друзьям

In this lesson we'll talk about best ways to learn a foreign language and also how to choose presents for your friends, learn a lot of useful vocabulary and practice with Russian pronunciation. In thу Grammar section we'll learn the past tense of Russian verbs. From lessons 1-4 you already know how to say which country you come from, which language you speak and what nationality you are. Готовы? Вперёд!

Русские Скороговорки. Russian Tougne-twisters.

First of all let's drill your Russian pronounciation further. Repeat the following tougne-twisters until you have mastered them.

Russian Verbs for this lesson

Russian verbs in the present tense change by person and number. There are imperfective forms and perfective ones . Please remember that perfective forms are NOT used in the present tense, only in the future and past. In the past tense Russian verbs have grammatical categories of number and gender and change their endings accordingly. Let's study Russian verbs for today.

Grammar.Грамматика

Cases of personal pronouns.

Dative case

Russian cases seem to be causing a lot of difficilties for learners of Russian. Whenever the problem is too big to attack at once you should approach it step by step. The nominative case you already know. So in this lesson let's learn Dative and Genitive cases.Dative case is used to indicate an object of an action and is used with verbs like подарить тебе (to give as a gift to you), объяснить тебе (to explain to you), рассказать тебе(to tell you), показать тебе (to show you), дать тебе(to give to you), написать тебе(to write to you), сообщить тебе (to inform you)and some others. Nouns in the Dative case answer the question "whom/ to whom?/ to what?" or in Russian "кому? чему?" for example : You wanna give this to whom? To my sister. Кому ты хочешь это дать? Моей сестре. You want to explain this to whom? To the Professor. Кому ты хочешь это объяснить? Профессору.

Pronouns change in the following way :

Профессор объяснил это мне - Professor explained this to me

Профессор объяснил это тебе - Professor explained this to you

Профессор объяснил это вам - Professor explained this to you

Профессор объяснил это нам - Professor explained this to us

Профессор объяснил это ей - Professor explained this to her

Профессор объяснил это ему - Professor explained this to him

Профессор объяснил это им - Professor explained this to them

Профессор объяснил это себе - Professor explained this to himself

Masculine nouns (singular)

Feminine nouns(singular)

Neuter nouns(singular)

Nominative

Кто? Что?

Dative

Кому? Чему?

Кто? Что?

Кому? Чему?

Кто? Что?

Кому? Чему?

человек

man

человеку

машина

car

машине

село

village

селу

стол

table

столу

девушка

girl

девушке

дерево

tree

дереву

мужчина

a man

мужчине

женщина

woman

женщине

общество

society

обществу

друг

friend

другу

подруга

girlfriend

подруге

дело

deed, action

делу

Костя,Слава,Паша

boy names

Косте,Славе,Паше

Ира,Марина,Зоя

girl names

Ире,Марине,Зое

плямя

пламени

стиль

style

стилю

дочь

daughter

дочери

знамя

знамени

фонарь

street light

фонарю

соль

salt

соли

cемя

семени

семья

family

семье

весло paddle

веслу

мафия

mafia

мафии

Лидия, Мария

girl names

Лидии,Марии

Masculine nouns (plural)

Feminine nouns(plural)

Neuter nouns(plural)

Кто? Что?

Кому? Чему?

Кто? Что?

Кому? Чему?

Кто? Что?

Кому? Чему?

люди

men

людям

машины

cars

машинам

сёла

villages

сёлам

столы

tables

столам

девушки

girls

девушкам

деревья

trees

деревьям

мужчины

men

мужчинам

женщины

women

женщинам

общества

societies

обществам

друзья

friends

друзьям

подруги

girlfriends

подругам

дела

deeds, actions

делам

стили

styles

стилям

дочери

daughters

дочерям

вёсла paddles

вёслам

фонари

street lights

фонарям

семьи

families

семьям

cемена seeds

семенам

Dative case is also used sometimes to indicate the destination of an certain motion :

Мы шли к пруду - We were heading toward the pond.

Идет солдатпо городу. - A soldier is walking in the city.

Я приду к тебе - I'll come to you.

Please note that in this case prepositions к and по are normally used.

Giving presents to friends

It is very pleasant to recieve gifts. But to give presents is even more pleasant. Everybody has friends. I have a lot of friends. When one of them has a birthday, I go to the store. I choose presents. There are be expensive and inexpensive presents. You need to be creative in choosing gifts, because everybody has their own taste. As a rule it is easier to choose gifts for your family members or friends because you know they better. There are also formal gifts - flowers, candies and suveniours. If you're planning to buy a gift for your friend make sure you consult with other friends so that don't end up buying the same gift. There are also special gifts. Something you can make with your own hands. Nowadays people tend to buy gift cards that have a certain amount of money on it so the person can buy whatever they want in the store. Unfortunately it ruins the surprise. But with this kind of gift you can never go wrong!

Now that you have come to the end of the lesson go over the Grammar part one more time and take a quiz.